Reviews

Charity worker makes enchanting debut

Over a decade of witty, cinematic pop from Manchester's Becker & Fagen

Hagiography of gangsta rap's most potent icon

Anthony Minghella's Civil War epic has plenty of razzle: spectacular opening sequence; deserter Jude Law's trans-American journey to Nicole Kidman; leery sheriff Ray Winstone; doughty Calamity Jane farmhand Renée Zellweger; and a plethora of star cameos. And yet, bar some early 'war is hell' pomposity, it's a disappointingly hollow experience

San Francisco, 1969: do enough acid and anything is possible. A gaggle of (mostly) gay freaks and flower children (and latterly, disco diva-to-be Sylvester) become the Cockettes, a utopian, ragged-arsed theatre troupe who wow the West Coast but flop in NY. This funny, moving doc eventually unravels in a roll call of deaths, both drug and AIDS-related. They were stardust, but all too briefly.

Candid 1994 documentary about iconic, sexually dysfunctional artist

From 1968, two post Mike Bloomfield albums by groundbreaking Chicago blues merchants on one CD

Intelligently compiled selection of mellow magic

Acoustic re-recordings from lovelorn Factory Records refugees

First solo album in 20 years from UFO-spotting ex-Kink